Comments on: Transferring Assets Upon Death Through a Will

By: Mary C Miller

Mary C Miller — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:53:44 +0000

Hello I have a qustion for an issue as far as a will goes. I have an invention going on now. It is in the stage of being patented. What kind of form do I need to have as far as if anything happens to me that my husband and my investor will be left with all the profits from this invention.
Thank you
Mary Christine Miller

By: Rosalind

Rosalind — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:04:26 +0000

My mother died on friday. What are my options with her car balance and the mtg balance?

By: Michele

Michele — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:10:28 +0000

I wanted to know if my parents need to start a trust along with a will in the event something happens to one of them. My parents have a lot of rental property and houses. I am concerned that if something happens to one of them and they cannot pay off any medical debt bills can there property (and all assets) be taken/sold to pay off the debt without a trust in place? They have a will in place but I wanted to know if everything needs to be placed in a trust as well as a will before something happens. Or will a will keep everything safe and it cannot be taken to pay off debt. Confused……

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:24:41 +0000

My father passed away a year ago in Melbourne, FL. Without going into a very long story, his wife of 27 years kept myself and my brother out of his life. Upon his last day on earth, she pushed us (literally) out of his hospital room. Needless to say, we have not heard one word of any will, nor have we been offered any items of my father to my brother and I.

I would like to find out the process of filing the will in Melbourne upon his death, and the process I would have to go through to view it.

Any help or advice would be appreciated for our closure.

By: Cathy Anne Green

Cathy Anne Green — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:14:06 +0000

Dad died, left will excluding estranged wife of 14 years(yet legally married) from property and assets. She has joint tenency with survivorship…so it appears this is an automatic. The wills states she is excluded from the other assests and these are to be divided equally between 6 adult children, 4 from first marriage and 2 from second. The second children believe the will is invalid as their 82 year old mother ‘deserves’ everything.Some assets have all 6 children named, others none.
What do you think?

By: milton a dorr jr.

milton a dorr jr. — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:02:18 +0000

when i die my daughter gets anything i have in my will i still owe on my house what happens then thanks

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:46:26 +0000

Leanne, in most cases, assets like stocks and other investments are “stepped up”, meaning the price determined for gain/loss purposes for the heirs is based on the price on the day the person died.

So the value itself isn’t frozen, as the market can make the price go up and down, but if he bought a share of XYC stock 20 years ago for $5 per share, and it was worth $10 per share on the day he died and the stock gets passed on, the person who is the new owner of the stock has a cost basis of $10, not $5. So if you sold the stock a month later for $12 per share, you have a $2 gain, not a $7 gain.

Of course, I think a few states may have different laws, and there could be estate tax concerns, and I’m not completely versed in taxes, so you would want to double check with an accountant or the attorney handling the estate to make sure how the assets would be valued in this case.

By: Leanne Johnson

Leanne Johnson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:37:43 +0000

I will be brief, My Uncle passed away, no will or spouse in Illinois. He had Misc. stocks/bonds. Question…Is their Value ”frozen” at time of death or when assets are sold and distributed? I apologize for my ignorance I have never had to deal with this before. Thank you, for your time.

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:43:13 +0000

Another Attorney however a majority of my work is fixing attorney mistakes due to a lack of understanding of advanced estate planning tools (I am the director of financial planning in a wealth managment firm).

So a caveat to J’s advice – Please, if you have a net worth of over 1mil do not use an attorney that does 17 closings a week and estate planning once every 8 months

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:42:19 +0000

Good comment, JB. You bring up a good point in regards to transfer of assets by contract. I see so many people who have very large retirement accounts, yet no beneficiaries on file at all.

And it looks like you are skipping ahead , as I was going to do consecutive posts this week about passing by contract, operation of law, and trusts. I am giving a pre-retirement seminar on estate planning tomorrow, so this information is fresh and makes it easy to write about here.